


Rescuing Others

by Tallihensia



Category: Smallville
Genre: Future Fic, M/M, Sappy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-04-24
Updated: 2009-04-24
Packaged: 2017-10-06 17:49:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/56252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tallihensia/pseuds/Tallihensia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lex has a new love in his life and calls upon Clark to save them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rescuing Others

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Only mine in my dreams. ;-) This story was written for free entertainment purposes only and may not be reproduced for profit or altered without permission.
> 
> Notes:  
> This was actually originally supposed to be totally silly. It went a bit serious, and then a bit sappy. o.o Ah well, hopefully it's still good.

# Rescuing Others

 

Clark hauled his attention from the computer screen and his words there. He reached for the phone that was ringing incessantly. "Clark Kent, Daily Planet."

For several seconds, there was only the soft sound of somebody breathing on the other end. Just before Clark was about to ask again, the person finally spoke, "Clark. Clark, I need..." the voice trailed off.

That voice. Clark pulled the phone away and stared at it in disbelief. He put it back to his ear in time to hear a throat clearing.

"Please."

Clark almost pulled it back again. Instead, he asked with disbelief and some anger, "Lex? Is that you?" It had been years since they'd last spoken person to person. Not since he was a teenager. They did interact, they had to; but it was reporter to corporate billionaire, or super-hero to law-dodging scientist villain. Both involved a lot of hostility and often yelling. The word 'please' had never once crossed Lex's lips in all that time.

"It's me. And... I know. God, Clark, I *know*." Lex's voice was strained and there was a note of desperation. "I don't *want* to ask you, but there's nobody else. Please, Clark, I know you... ... I know. But for *them.*"

In spite of himself, Clark was moved. That was the genuine Lex that he hadn't heard since his youth. And he'd *never* heard that much raw need from Lex. "What happened? What did you do?"

"Fuck you too," Lex's voice turned brittle. Then he swallowed, hard. "I don't care what you think of me, but you have to help them. Please. We're in my office. They'll let you up."

A dial tone in his ear told Clark that Lex had hung up.

Making a face, Clark put his phone away and then with a touch of x-ray, glanced out through the walls to the LuthorCorp building nearby. Nothing *looked* out of place, with everybody at their usual frantic business pace and office flow in and out of the building. He glanced up to Lex's office, but the lead-shielding in the windows and walls prevented him from seeing anything. Clark should go, though. He didn't want to see innocents hurt, and Lex had said there were others that needed him.

"Lois, I'm taking a break."

The other reporter gave him only a single sharp glance before nodding. Somebody leaving right after a phone call usually meant a source. Not quite this time, but it would do as an excuse.

\--

Clark walked in, and, as Lex had said they would, the guards at the desk and then the elevator instantly waved him through. He was *really* wondering now, and starting to get a bit worried. When he reached the top, that worry intensified ten-fold.

"Vara, are you okay?" Clark started instantly for the secretary who was sitting at her desk with Mercy beside her. Her skin was red and puffy all over, particularly on her arms, she was having difficulty breathing, her eyes were red and tears streamed out uncontrollably.

Vara waved him off, wheezing, "I'll be fine. Help Lex!" She glanced over at Mercy who took it up.

"The problem is, none of the rest of us know *how* to do anything – Vera can't, I don't, Lex doesn't... and he won't let us get anybody else. He doesn't trust them. All of us he trusts can't, and he refuses completely to give their care to anybody else, no matter how practical it might be." Mercy threw her hands up in exasperation. "There are a hundred people here who could help. And he won't let us bring *any* of them in! You're our last hope. For some unknown reason, Lex still trusts you."

Clark ignored the last part and tried to soothe them, "It's okay. I'll take care of it. What, exactly...?"

Mercy shook her head and said nothing, just opening the door for him. Clark walked through, wondering still.

Inside Lex's main office, the sound-proofing designed to keep Superman from listening in also shut out the sounds of the world that he could hear even in the quiet outer office. The sounds of small voices crying and whimpering were instantly audible, though he couldn't see them. Clark's heart thumped as he thought, 'babies?' and hurried around the office to behind the desk.

And he stood still in shock at the sight he saw there. Not babies. Well, not exactly babies. But something he'd never ever expected to see in his life.

Behind his desk, sitting on the ground with his legs tucked under him and partially slumped against the wall, was a stressed out Lex. His tie was gone, the top buttons of his shirt torn through, stains all over the shirt, his sleeves rolled up, and a frantic look in his eyes. The frantic look changed to a pleading one as he saw Clark. In his lap were three little kittens, and he was holding a fourth with one hand, and a bottle of milk in the other. The kittens were the ones doing the crying, crawling around in his lap, desperate and frightened and hungry.

"Clark," Lex's voice was pleading, needful, worried, "Please... They won't drink, they won't eat... I don't know what to do! Help them, please."

This was so far from what Clark had expected that he just stood there, mouth agape. Lex pleaded again, but he didn't actually hear it. "Kittens?"

Lex's eyes flashed, "Is rescuing kittens so far beneath you, then? That it's only people, and those your favorites that you'll help?" He made a motion as if to get up, but then was caught again by the kittens and returned his full attention to them. Carefully placing the tortoiseshell he'd been holding back down with its siblings, he picked up another that was grey with white splotches, and tried to coax that one with the bottle.

Clark gurgled a bit, caught between anger at Lex's words, and exasperation at the rich person's attempt at caring for young cats. "They're not babies!" Actually, they looked to be about 3-4 weeks old, which was a lot better than if Lex had found newborns. Clark was still baffled by their existence in the office at all, but first things first. He glanced around and saw a glass ashtray over by the visitor's desk. He got that and ducked into the bathroom, scrubbing it down thoroughly before filling it up with water and bringing it and some of the cloth towels back in. He grabbed a sugar pack from the coffee tray and mixed that in the water.

Settling down near Lex, Clark spread the towels out between them, and rolled up a couple to make small barriers. He put the water tray on the towel and reached for the other grey kitten in Lex's lap, coming up from behind it and stroking it softly on the head before scruffing it gently. Lex made a faint protest at the action, an anxious look in his eyes.

"Scruffing them doesn't hurt – it's how momma cats carry them," Clark explained briefly. "Here, little..." Clark did a quick underneath check, "Little fellow. Come on, here you go..." He put the cat down gently on the towel and dipped his finger in the water, bringing his dripping finger back up, slowly and trying not to look like he was attacking the cat. The kitten mewled and then when he touched its nose, it licked his finger, slowly and then more rapidly, squalling when there wasn't any left. Clark did it again, and then laughed when the kitten tried for more. "That's enough for the moment, fellow..."

"He's still thirsty," Lex pointed out.

"That's enough for now," Clark repeated. "They have small stomachs and we want them to get some food too."

Carefully picking up the little orange kit, Clark looked at Lex, "Bring your kitten down to the towel here. Be careful and use gentle movements." When Lex had his kitten on the towel too, Clark repeated the finger dips in the water for the orange kit and watched as Lex did the same with grey one. "Now the tortoiseshell." Lex hesitated and Clark expanded, "The black one with the orange and white marks."

"Since she's the last one left, I think I figured that out, thank you," Lex remarked sarcastically, even as he gently repeated the treatment for her.

Since arguing wouldn't be good for the kittens, Clark ignored that and looked around, gazing through the desk and walls with his x-ray vision, but couldn't find what he needed. "Where do you keep your lunch?"

Lex looked over in disbelief, "You're hungry?"

"Not for me!"

"They're kittens, and their momma is dead. She can't feed them."

Lex's eyes shaded over again at the statement, and Clark involuntarily felt his heart turn over again, like it had when he first saw Lex sitting there with kittens crawling all over him. His response was gentler than it might have been. "They're feral kittens whose mother used to have to scrounge for their food. House-raised cats probably wouldn't be on solids by now, but we'll try it with these little fellows while you send Mercy out for some real canned kitten food and some kitten milk substitute." Lex glanced at the bottle he'd put down and Clark snorted, but softly. "That's cow's milk and in waaaaay too large of a bottle."

"Alright…" Lex gave another glance at the kittens on the floor between them, then levered his way up, wobbling a bit as he stood.

Clark almost dashed to support him, but didn't because it would disturb the kittens and Lex probably wouldn't want him to. As he looked at Lex standing, one hand on the wall to brace himself, Clark hissed with an indrawn breath, "Your arm!"

Casually, Lex raised his arm and studied it a moment, before shrugging and letting it drop. "It'll heal."

And yes, Lex did heal more rapidly than a normal person, but Clark was willing to bet he was also running a bit of a fever right now. Cat scratches and bites could be nasty, even, or especially, when they were just kittens, and Lex had apparently gotten himself *quite* scratched up in his attempt to be the hero. Seeing the arm, Clark re-evaluated the stains on Lex's shirt and decided they were from blood as well. Considering the amount of damage that also had to have caused a fair amount of pain, Clark was actually surprised that Lex had persisted in the rescue and not left the little ones on their own. Clark ran a finger down the back of the little tortoiseshell who was trying to climb over the barricade he'd made with the towels, towards where Lex had been sitting.

"Yes, kitten food; the soft canned kind. I don't know – whatever is the best they've got. And cat milk substitute."

Clark interjected, while corralling the now exploring kittens in their area, "Nothing with onions in it. And bring back a heating pad, some more towels, and a box."

Lex turned to face him, startled. "A box?"

With a deft hand, Clark redirected the orange kitten back to its siblings. "Wide open areas mean predators. They'll feel safer if they can be contained in some way and have a safe place to sleep in."

His gaze exploring the mini-boundaries that Clark had put up, Lex nodded and relayed the instructions to Mercy before hanging up.

"You'll also have to take them to a vet," Clark said softly, looking down at the kittens instead of at Lex.

The explosion he was bracing for didn't come. "Vaccinations," Lex finally said, his voice tight and tightly contained. "I suppose there's no way around that. Okay."

Clark let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. He nodded. There was other stuff vets checked for as well, but it was enough of a victory that the doctor-shy Lex had said okay. "It doesn't have to be right away."

"But the sooner the better," Lex responded, sounding resigned. He was rummaging around on the other side of the desk, in a box that Clark couldn't see.

"Ah, there it is." Lex turned back to him, holding a sandwich aloft.

Clark blinked. "You keep your lunch in a lead-lined box?"

Lex started to answer, but then was distracted as all four of the kittens stopped what they were doing to raise their heads in the air, sniffing very intently. They all started mewing in chorus, bodies wobbling on their attempt to run towards the meat.

"I think that answers the question if they can eat solids yet," Clark said dryly as he grabbed handfuls of kittens and hauled them back. "Come and sit down again and we'll tear that up."

Very carefully, Lex lowered himself back down, not quite as graceful as he normally was. He took the beef out from the sandwich and frowned at the mayonnaise smeared on it. "That's not going to hurt them, will it?"

"They'll probably love it," Clark replied, getting the kittens trapped in the improvised box between his and Lex's legs and the towels. They were trying to climb up Lex's leg, but were still too small to do it successfully without help. He reached over and took the other half of the sandwich, wondering a bit at the incredibly mundane food in the billionaire's office. But then, Lex never actually *liked* all his rich trappings so much as went along with expectations. Clark remembered how Lex always would snack off Clark's food whenever he'd visit.

"Tear it up into small pieces." Clark did the same to his half, placing the pieces on his bent knee where the kittens couldn't get at it. He glanced over at Lex and added, "Not that small…"

Lex adjusted, frowning in concentration. Clark felt his heart turn over again. Third time so far. He fatalistically realized it probably wouldn't be the last time this day. Lex was being so *adorable*. Almost cuter than the kittens, the way he was trying so hard.

Carefully, they fed the kittens pieces of beef, trying to make sure the four had equal shares without choking or stuffing themselves too much. When they were finished, one by one they fell over where they stood, collapsing into little piles of fur, sprawling on top of each other.

"What happened?" Lex asked, alarmed. "Are they okay?" His hand hovered over one of the fur balls, ready to snatch it from danger.

Clark smiled, petting one of the others. "They're fine. They're just sleeping."

"But they just keeled over…"

"Kittens do that. They've got like two buttons – 'on' and 'off'. They won't be doing much for a few weeks other than eating and sleeping."

Lex looked disappointed, though he tried hard to hide it. His emotionless mask just wasn't quite up to the job this day.

Clark found himself smiling again, though this time not at the kittens. He quickly hid it, turning his head down and concentrating on petting the little fluff balls. "They should get personalities fairly soon. They'll be adding 'playing' to their 'on' part within the next couple weeks, though it might be awhile before they'll be lap cats. Or so Karen used to tell me."

Looking up, Lex studied Clark almost as intensely as he'd been looking at the cats.

Drawing in a breath, Clark closed his eyes. It was like being in a sudden sun burst, shining through a cloudy day. The focus of attention without the hate, just the inquiring, 'I want to know' that was everyday Lex. God, he'd missed it. He hadn't known he had, but feeling it again now, after so long…

The feeling went away, and Clark opened his eyes to see Lex carefully studying the wall, avoiding looking anywhere in Clark's direction. This time, Clark's smile was bitter and aimed at himself.

"We lived on a farm, Lex." Clark returned his own attention to the kittens. "We had barn cats, and sometimes their mommas would disappear – coyotes or something – and we'd have to take care of the kittens when they were so young. But as soon as they were old enough, back to the barn they went. We didn't have pets. Just barn cats." Clark had always wanted one… "Karen was in my grade in school. She lived in town and when we were in… second grade? Third? She asked me for some of the kittens because her dad had said they could have pets. She used to keep me updated on how they were doing."

"I don't…" Lex hesitated, before starting again. "I don't remember a Karen in your class."

"No." Clark sighed. "Her dad died, and their family had to move out to an uncle's or somewhere. That was just a few years later. They took the cats with them."

There was a bit of a startled silence from Lex's direction. Clark sighed, very very softly. Then he got up and got more towels and water. When he came back, he leaned across the kittens and hovered his hand by Lex's shirt without touching him. "Let me look at your stomach."

Lex tensed up and moved away.

Clark didn't move. "Come-on, Lex. At some point, you were carrying those kittens in your shirt… they had to have gotten you pretty deep. Yeah, you'll heal. But won't you heal better if those scratches are cleaned up? They've gotta hurt like hell."

"Like you'd know," Lex snapped. However, he stopped moving away, and let Clark gently pull the shirt up.

Clark winced a bit in sympathy at all the red marks across Lex's stomach. Not all had drawn blood, and others had already healed over, but they were still puffy and nasty and stood in sharp contrast to the pale skin. The muscled pale skin, Clark noticed. Lex had certainly been keeping himself fit, whatever else he did. He gently wiped the scrapes with the wet towel.

"I can do that," Lex made a half-hearted protest.

Batting away the hand that reached to take the towel from him, Clark continued to clean the wounds. "I do know, actually." His voice was a bare whisper. It wasn't something they'd ever put in words.

"One of your human moments, I suppose." A sneer was back in Lex's voice.

Clark had a hard time reining in his own temper but with the kittens sleeping between them, he managed it. He choked down his own first instinct to snap back and replied with truth instead. "I didn't have anything more than the strength until I was eight."

It was rather amazing, Clark reflected, how Lex's silences were always so *loud*. "I got speed when I was eight. But invulnerability? Not until you hit me. I wasn't even sure if you *had* hit me. I thought maybe you'd hit the rail next to me and I'd imagined the car. I couldn't think how I would have lived through actually being hit. Being next to the rail made more sense. But when I told my parents, that's when they…" In the end, he couldn't actually come out and say it. His words died off, trailing into that loud silence.

Lex cleared his throat. "I always wondered how you had perfected the flinch reflex for hot things; things that shouldn't have been hot to you."

"I burned myself a lot as a kid," Clark admitted. "The cookies just coming off the pan… I was an impatient child."

Clark sat back and traded the towel for some anti-bacterial cream.

"That's not really necessary," Lex again protested with words but didn't move to stop him.

"Even after you hit me," Clark carefully didn't look up; he didn't want to meet Lex's eyes, "I didn't have full invulnerability. Things still hurt for awhile, though I was toughening up in degrees. When you shot me, the bullets—"

Lex recoiled, out of Clark's reach in seconds and half-way across the room. Clark blinked, stunned by the sudden move that *wasn't* a super-power. Between them, the kittens didn't stir from their slumber.

Clark still didn't want to look at those grey-blue eyes, but he finally did, searching for what had disturbed the man. "Lex?"

"I never shot you!" Lex's voice was shaking, his face pale, his eyes wild and terrified. "I've *wanted* to… especially these last few years!" He continued to back away from Clark.

With a sigh, Clark settled back against the wall, putting the towels down and picking up the orange kitten instead. The kitten made a protesting whimper before curling into a new ball and letting itself be stroked softly. "I forgot; you don't remember that."

Lex turned his back on Clark and reached for the brandy. He held the bottle without opening it. "When Dad drugged me? That year I lost from Belle Reeve?"

"Ah…" It was Clark's turn to wince. "I'd feel better if you put that bottle down." Clark stroked the kitten, directing his attention back down and away from his ex-friend.

A thump on the counter signaled Lex's compliance, but Clark still didn't say anything.

"Clark…" The note in Lex's voice was half warning, half pleading.

Clark put the kitten down next to his siblings, and watched the four of them sleeping peacefully together. "You remember Bob Rickman, and how he got people to do things by shaking hands with them?"

There was a crash as Lex fell against the wine rack. Clark was over there before anything else happened, steadying him. "Lex?"

Lex's eyes were closed, his body limp against Clark's, his breathing ragged.

"Come on, Lex. You're scaring me here…"

"I shot you. With a *machine gun*! Multiple times. After setting you on fire in my car…" Lex didn't open his eyes, but his words were clipped and frightened.

"You remember?" Clark held his friend and felt the shivers running through his body.

"No. I have the evidence from the warehouse where it took place. Those were my fingerprints all over everything, that was my dad's gun from the locker room, those were a lot of flattened bullets and no blood." Lex pulled himself out of Clark's arms and walked back to the other wall, moving like an old man. He sat down heavily, staring sightlessly at the kittens. "You told me nothing happened. I wanted to believe it so badly…" With a moan, he buried his head in his hands. "That was only a few months after we met. No wonder you never trusted me."

Evidence? Clark squirmed. He'd totally forgotten about everything they'd left behind. And it *had* been Lex's car that had been burned. Lex would have had to deal with the insurance and his dad. Yeah, okay. Back then, they really hadn't thought anything through. But it was *Smallville*. "Lex, it wasn't that. It was never—"

A knock at the door, and Mercy came in with the cat supplies. There seemed to be quite a bit more than what Lex had asked for. "Where do you want these? Oh! They're sleeping!"

"I want to see…" Vara crowded around Mercy's back, and took a quick look, then sneezed loudly and moved quickly away. "I hate being allergic, dammit! They're so cute."

Clark gave a worried look to Lex, but found that with Mercy's arrival, Lex had done a rather remarkable transformation and was every inch the businessman again. The only evidence of the kittens was his disheveled shirt, and there was none at all of his outburst on his face.

"Put it all down there, Mercy." Lex gestured at the end table. "Thank you."

Mercy put the bags down and then looked again at the kittens, carefully keeping her distance, but with a longing look on her face.

"You can pet them," Clark offered. "They're pretty sacked out right now."

Mercy looked alarmed and started backing off. "Um, I have errands to run. Errands…" She fled out the door and closed it behind her.

Lex chuckled slightly. "My fearless second. Afraid of no human, mutant, nor superman, but runs from kittens." He touched one of the grey cats lightly. "I can't keep them."

Clark had been looking at the door. With that, his head whipped around and he stared speechless at Lex.

"I can't!" Lex snarled. "I would just hurt them. Like I do all things I love." A normal person wouldn't have been able to hear the last sentence.

Closing his eyes, Clark banged his head lightly against the wall. Over the years, he'd forgotten about Lex's tendency towards melodrama. Well, he hadn't *forgotten*, seeing as how he was presented with it so much in villainy; but the early stuff had been mostly self-directed.

With a sigh, Clark started going through the stuff Mercy had brought. There was a lot more in there than just the food. "Hey, litter pan!" Good thing – he'd totally forgotten about that. It was a perfect kitten size too, low to the ground and easy to crawl in. There were also some cute little dishes with really neat decorations. They didn't look like anything normally sold in the pet stores, but they were a perfect size for food and would go through the dishwasher fine. He held one up, trying to figure out where he'd seen something like them...

"Soy sauce dishes for sushi."

Clark jumped. Lex had left his corner and walked up behind him so quietly that Clark hadn't heard him. Lex reached over and fingered the soft pillow Mercy had brought to fit inside the box.

"Can you take them?" Lex whispered, his focus on the supplies, his heart in his voice.

How was Clark supposed to fix *this*? Did he want to? Was he supposed to? It was a lot easier to rescue people by swooping in and pulling them out of danger. "Like I'd be a good pet owner. Lex, you *know* what my life is like." He gulped, steeling himself for the next part. "I think you should keep them. You'll be good with them, and they've obviously learned to trust you." If the kittens *hadn't* trusted him, they wouldn't have been climbing all over him earlier, even as hungry as they were. And Lex was adorable with them. Clark hadn't even realized how much of Lex was made up of defense barriers until four little balls of fur had come and knocked them down without even trying. It would be a mistake to take the kittens from him now. Or to let Lex talk himself out of them.

"More fools they." Lex turned away and punched the wall, splitting his knuckles and waking the sleeping kittens.

Clark gave Lex one angry glare and then hurried back to the piles of fur that were sitting up and looking anxiously around. The grey one with slightly larger white spots than its sibling was crying, mewling in plaintive wails that had confused Clark earlier into thinking there were babies here. Though, Clark shot a glance back at a stricken Lex, he rather thought there *was* at least one here. "Lex, get back here."

As near to running as Clark had ever seen him, Lex looked at him with wide, terrified eyes and didn't move.

With another sigh, Clark picked up the grey and the torti and cuddled them, tickling their little noses and whispering nonsense to them. Then he walked back to Lex and dumped them in his hands, even as the other man curled his arms up protectively and tilted his head down to them.

Privately, Clark thought Lex was asking for a few scratches across the face to match the ones on his arms by getting that close, but he knew the impulse. Clark had seen some claw clippers in with the supplies. Probably should do that soon. For now, the cats were letting Lex stick his face right up to them and weren't doing anything dangerous other than being adorable. Slaying the dragon with cuteness. Or seducing him...

Quickly redirecting his thoughts, Clark gathered up the other two and put them in his jacket pocket, where they looked around with wide blue-grey eyes and squirmed but didn't try and crawl out. Then he set up a little section over where they'd been sitting with the box turned on its side so the open end faced out and the top was enclosed, and put the heat pad inside, a thick soft cloth over it. The food and water bowls were placed a couple feet in front of the box, along the side of Lex's desk, on top of a wipeable mat. The small kitty litter box went on the other side of the box. The kittens in his pocket watched all this with curious eyes, and when he glanced surreptitiously over at Lex, his friend was watching him with much the same expression. The kittens Lex was holding were happily climbing all over him while Lex was performing acrobatic feats to keep them from falling, all the time with his gaze on Clark.

"Lex," Clark coaxed gently, making his voice soft and non-threatening, "You can bring them over here now." He put his two down on the ground next to the box, where they proceeded to tumble around, mock-fighting with each other until one got a good grip on the other's ear and then the squalling turned real. They instantly separated, grooming intently. Clark hated to admit it, but they kind of reminded him of himself and Lex.

When Lex put his two down, they instantly joined the others, as if they'd never been apart. Still moving carefully, Clark patted the ground next to the box, urging Lex to sit down. The other man gave him a glare, apparently not appreciating the soft gloved treatment, but sitting down all the same. Clark sat down next to him, so that Lex was between Clark and the kittens. He reached across Lex to dangle one of the string toys at the kittens.

"Clark, what are you doing?" Lex's voice shook, even as he held himself tightly, pulling himself in to avoid Clark. Yet not actually moving away.

A 'playing with the kittens' was on the tip of Clark's tongue, but for once in his life, he held it back. He'd already dicked around too much with Lex. Half of their troubles today could be attributed to his silences or non-answers, in one way or another. The problem was... "Lex, it was never you. It was Smallville."

There was another loud silence from the body Clark was leaning over, but Clark didn't let it go on too long. "Nobody in Smallville ever asked. Ever."

"They were blind."

Clark smiled a bit – he knew what Lex thought he was being subtle about in the other meaning about that. "Not me. Or not *just* me." He hesitated, his life of conditioning growing up warring with his need to tell Lex now.

"Lex, nobody ever thought I was any different... because I *wasn't*. Not in Smallville. Just... nobody ever talked about it."

Stirring, Lex picked up the torti that was clambering unsuccessfully at his leg and helped the kitten into his lap. The orange one instantly followed and then the two greys. All four of them promptly turned into balls of fluff again and fell asleep, tangled in each other and in between Lex's hands. "I know there was a lot of weird stuff going on in Smallville, but –"

"It wasn't 'a lot'," Clark interrupted, "and it wasn't weird. Not to us." He reached to pet the sleeping kittens, not so incidentally also brushing his fingers over Lex's hands.

This was a little dangerous, but Lex had had years to experiment with the meteor rocks and with the population, so Clark figured he was in for a penny, in for the whole pound. "Everybody in Smallville could do something, Lex. That's why we never talked about it. It just *was*."

"Everybody?"

Clark grinned, relieved to hear the note of interest back in Lex's voice. He moved from stroking the kittens to running his thumb over the broken skin on Lex's knuckles. "Lana could make the fireflies dance, even when it was winter and there supposedly weren't any around. She'd call, and they'd dance. Though she hasn't done that since we were kids."

"She grew up and stopped believing."

Very probably. Lana had always been caught between the small town and the city, and lived between them.

"Nothing Pete ever drove in broke down. Karen could carry silence with her. Whitney could get stains out of any clothes."

"Oh, that's useful."

"Well, they weren't *all* powerful. Mostly, not. That's why everybody got so terrified when a powerful one did suddenly break through." Clark shrugged. "Whitney always thought *he* should have been the one with strength. Or at least that I should have joined the football team."

"So small-town fairness..." Lex trailed off, expectantly, only slightly mockingly.

Clark shrugged. "Using it against each other would be cheating. Using it against the other teams? No problem. Well, according to the guys. Not according to my dad." Clark made a face. He'd always wanted to join the football team...

Lex shifted his hand out from under Clark's, moving to pet the sleeping torti... and hesitantly, the edge of Clark's finger. "What could your parents do?"

It was Clark's turn for a silence that was only partly because of the feel of Lex's skin stroking his. Which stopped after a few seconds of the silence. Clark rushed to fill the gap, "I don't... I don't know." He frowned, thinking hard. "I don't think they actually had any."

Lex turned to face him, their faces only a few inches apart. Steel-blue eyes flared in a panicked reaction, but Lex didn't move away. A cleared throat and the wide eyes were the only outward signs of his discomfort. "Your parents were the only two normal people in Smallville?"

"It must have been the ship," Clark decided with a nod to himself and his thoughts that he'd been whipping through, trying to figure it out. "It cured Mom when she got sick, and deactivated the kryptonite in Lana's necklace... it must have been protecting us all that time too."

"Everybody wants to protect you," Lex whispered, turning his face back down to the kittens. He spread his fingers out in a shielding gesture around them. "Against people who run you over and shoot you and want to use you. Understandable."

All Lex had ever wanted to do was to protect Clark, and Clark had never let him. Clark had pushed the other youth away every time he'd done it. Pushed until they were fighting in earnest, not just the mock squabbles of kittens. Clark eased his hand from Lex's lap and then shifted so he could put his arm around Lex's shoulders. Pulling them closer instead of apart. Hopefully. He knew he was taking a big chance here. But hadn't Lex taken the first one, calling him? Even if this wasn't what he'd called for.

Beneath his arm, Lex stiffened, instinctively rebellious against the close contact.

"Lex, you still don't get it." The stiffness went up another notch and Clark realized he'd said the wrong thing again. But he blundered on, trying this time, because he'd always given up before. "Nobody cares about shit like that. Hell, Pete tried to kill me about three or four times himself from one thing or another. And Jodi tried to *eat* Pete while he was going out with her, but he didn't mind that. It just happens. It's not anybody's fault."

Clark tucked his head in closer to Lex's bowed one. "It was all the questions," he said softly. "Nobody in Smallville ever talked about it, nobody questioned it, nobody thought too hard; if we did, then maybe then we *would* have started blaming each other for the deaths and the hurts and the pain. But every time you asked me how, or what, or ..." Clark shuddered, frightened again, like the teenager he used to be. Remembering the emotion, the emotion remembering him.

"Chloe asked."

"And the town shied away from her too. Ever notice she was one of our outcast group? Pete and I were the only two who hung out with her because we were already the dweebs. Well, I was, and Pete stuck with me. But it took us years to get used to her asking about stuff." Clark kept his one arm around Lex's shoulders, and moved the other in to pet one of the sleeping cats, in need of a bit of reassurance of his own. "I blew up at her when she tried to investigate my adoption. Our friendship was always breaking up and getting back again, because of her questions."

"Like ours used to," Lex said, relaxing a bit.

"Yeah. But Chloe didn't have a dad like yours."

"And she was your peer."

"And I wasn't confused and scared about being in love with her when she was a guy. Or wasn't, rather. Which just made it worse."

"What?" Lex turned his head to look at Clark.

This time, Clark took full advantage of the closeness and moved that extra inch in. Pressing his lips against Lex's stunned ones. His hand came up to cup Lex's face, framing the smooth skin and stroking gently.

After a long moment, he drew back far enough to look at Lex. There was only a rim of blue on the edges of his irises, the black pupils were so large. He looked stunned and not likely to come out of it any time soon. Clark smiled and moved back in again.

This time, Lex responded, hesitantly kissing back. He shifted, bringing his hands up... and suddenly the room was full of tiny cries and squalling as the kittens were jostled from their warm sleep.

They both pulled back, focusing on soothing the little balls of fur and not looking at each other. Though Clark cheated and kept taking little glances. Lex was red, blushing and definitely *not* looking anywhere near Clark.

The kittens wouldn't stop crying, and Clark reluctantly left Lex's side to get one of the cans, opening it and making four separate dishes of the mushy food. The little ones instantly wobbled their way off Lex's lap, almost falling off except that Lex was helping them down. When they got to their food, they started gobbling it up. The orange one was so eager, he shoved his whole face in, smearing the food everywhere.

"I think we'll name that one 'Clark'," Lex said dryly.

Clark raised a middle finger. "My mom taught me manners!"

"Which you were always happy to put aside when you were out of her reach..." Lex was smiling at him. It was a genuine smile, showing in both expression and voice. And he was more relaxed, looking straight at Clark while the blush receded.

Drawing in a breath, Clark held it, unable to believe that his gamble had actually paid off. While he was in the middle of it, he'd just kept going, knowing that to stop would have been disaster. Yet he'd never actually *expected*...

"Are you just going to stand there?" Lex's voice purred much like the kittens. Though there was a look in his eye that showed he was still uncertain.

Clark returned to Lex's side, kneeling down and gazing intently at him. Hesitantly, he reached out to touch Lex's cheek.

Lex leaned into the touch, eyelids dropping down. "It's not going to be easy," he said, not looking at Clark.

"I know," Clark answered. It really wasn't going to be. There was so much between them, so many years, so much differences in their lives. "Raising pets always requires changes."

With a laugh, Lex glanced over at the kittens, who were mostly finished stuffing their faces and starting to fall over in little heaps again. He reached over and gently piled them one by one into their new box home. "Something tells me they're going to be worth it."

Turning back to Clark, Lex reached out and met him half-way as they came together.

"If we're doing this... Don't leave me again," Lex murmured against his lips. "I don't know what I'd do if I lost you again."

Probably destroy the world or something worse. But Clark managed to choke down the thought before it left his lips. He was going to have to make a lot of changes of his own. It wasn't just Lex. And it scared him too. But this time, "I won't," Clark promised. "I'm not going to lose you again either."

Lex twined his fingers through Clark's hair, stroking and tangling. "And I get a live-in pet-savior as a bonus."

Live-in? Um, there were a few other things they were going to have to talk about... "Rescuing kittens is my other full time job." Clark worked his hand under Lex's shirt, gently avoiding the scrapes on his stomach and moving up a bit higher. It was too soon for lower.

"I know. That's why I called you." Lex pulled him in closer. "You're good at rescuing others."

Clark closed his eyes and then opened them, staring into blue ones. He leaned in and explored Lex's mouth from the inside out, deliberately keeping himself from saying anything out loud, but meaning his thoughts all the same. 'And this time, I'll rescue you as well. I won't give up on you; not this time.' He put his thoughts into the strength of his kiss, and Lex returned it with equal fervor.

Maybe this time, they would rescue each other. And the kittens.

 

* * *

End

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I did kitten fic. ;p  
>   
> ^___^ _Original picture from [Box O Kittens](http://www.funnycatpix.com/_pics/box_o_kittens.htm) (and there's even more kits there!))_  
> 


End file.
